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“Of course, the ultimate test will be who the NRSC, Karl Rove, and Mitch McConnell do NOT support.”

So how does this work? It is undisputed that Speaker T.W. Shannon is more conservative than Congressman Lankford. However, Shannon is also a conservative rising star, being a young, charismatic, experienced candidate who happens to be both black and Native American, so I can see Rove and McConnell supporting him because they know he’d win the general handily and would become a national star for the GOP. Would those endorsements suddenly turn Shannon into a RINO? Would they make Shannon’s down-the-line-conservative positions any less conservative?

We should judge candidates based on their merits (which include experience and their deeds matching their words), not blacklist those who someone we distrust endorses. Remember, a stopped clock is right twice a day, and Rove and McConnell could support (and have supported) candidates in spite of such candidates’ principled conservatism because they think that it’s a good electoral choice. Rove and McConnell are in the business of winning elections, not losing them, so if they see a conservative as a winner they’ll back the conservative. (Their problem is that often they refuse to see conservatives as potential winners, but even they can recognize that Shannon is a budding megastar.)